This Article is From Oct 20, 2014

Om Prakash Chautala's Party Gets its Lowest Ever Vote Share

Om Prakash Chautala's Party Gets its Lowest Ever Vote Share

A deserted view at the INLD office after the partys poor show in Haryana elections. (Press Trust of India)

Chandigarh: Opposition (INLD) which was eyeing to wrest power from the Congress after about 10 years with its Chief Om Prakash Chautala going to the extreme end of declaring his intention to take oath in the Tihar Jail, ended up with its lowest vote share in the four elections contested by it since 2000.

Not only the Indian National Lok Dal, Congress also saw a massive decrease in its vote share to 20.6 per cent - which was third lowest since 1966, for the party which has contested all the 12 assembly elections so far.

Congress's earliest lowest vote shares were 17.15 per cent in 1977 and 20.27 per cent in 1996. In 1977 the party won only three seats out of 83 contested whereas in 1996 it emerged victorious only on nine seats out of 90 contested.

The party's lowest seat tally - 3 - was in 1977 assembly election after the emergency was lifted. In 1977 the Janata Party, which included leaders of the erstwhile Jan Sangh, won 75 of the 90 seats with a vote share of 46.70 per cent.

Congress had got the highest vote share of 46.91 per cent in the 1972 elections when the party won 52 of the 82 seats it contested.

As far as INLD is concerned it has witnessed a decline in vote share in all the four assembly elections the party contested in 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2014.

The party got its best vote share of 29.61 per cent in 2000 when it won 47 of the 62 seats it contested.

INLD's vote share declined to 26.77 per cent in the subsequent election in 2005 when the party won just nine seats out of 89 contested.


The Chautala led party continued to suffer losses with its vote share further declining to 25.29 per cent in the 2009 assembly elections when INLD won 31 of the 88 seats it contested.

The party further suffered losses this time as its share declined to 24.1 per cent and the number of seats also fell to 19 from the 88 contested.

BSP has also not been able to make any headway in Haryana. It has managed to win just a single seat in the elections held in 1991, 2000, 2005, 2009 and the present 2014 elections.

Its vote share has also hovered around five per cent except in 2009 when it got a vote share of 6.73 per cent.
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